Park City sculpture damaged by runaway laundry crate

A runaway laundry crate on June 22 struck a work by the late sculptor John Kennedy that was on display outside the Trove Gallery in the plaza of the Marriott’s Summit Watch. The sculpture suffered scratches.

A linen company worker lost control of a large laundry crate last week in the plaza of the Marriott's Summit Watch, accidentally allowing the wheeled crate to careen into an expensive sculpture on display outside a gallery, the Park City Police Department said.

The Trove Gallery work, created by the late sculptor John Kennedy, had been at the location for 20 years. The gallery would provide a buyer with another piece from the edition when one sold. The work features two seated human figures. The sculpture suffered scratches on the back that need to be buffed out followed by a chemical process required to match the color of the piece.

Jen Schumacher, the owner of the gallery, said the $46,000 sculpture is salvageable. The figures were seated on a bench. The bench, which is not part of the work, was damaged as well.

"It's bizarre," she said about the incident.

Schumacher said the gallery rarely encounters problems involving sculptures that are kept on display outdoors like the one that was struck. She noted a vandalism case targeting an outdoor sculpture approximately 15 years ago.

The Police Department received the report at just after 11 a.m. on June 22. Phil Kirk, a police captain, said the linen company worker was moving two full laundry crates when the person had difficulty with one of them. It rolled away from the person and struck the sculpture, he said. Kirk said a surveillance camera recorded the incident.

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Police Department logs indicated the incident was initially classified as suspected criminal mischief and was later changed to reflect it being a property-damage case. Kirk said the case is civil rather than criminal in nature.